Chelsea legend Eidur Gudjohnsen says Ross
Barkley’s decision to take his side’s penalty – and
miss it – in their 1-0 defeat to Valencia was
“disrespectful” towards his team-mates.
Barkley immediately stepped up to take the kick
despite the presence of regular takers Jorginho and
Willian on the pitch, with the latter in particular
appearing to protest his call.
The England midfielder promptly flashed the spot-
kick off the top of the crossbar to get Chelsea’s
Champions League campaign off to the worst
possible start.
Frank Lampard said after the game that Barkley is a
designated taker, but there was a clear
disagreement between the players on the pitch.
“It’s almost disrespectful to your team-mates to do
something like what Ross Barkley did this evening,”
Gudjohnsen said on BT Sport.
“I’m pretty sure it’s clear who is the penalty taker
before the game.
“Just to create all the fuss, the tension between
your team-mates and yourself and then go on to
miss the penalty, you just put yourself under so
much more pressure than actually just taking a
penalty.”
Such penalty confusion appears to be developing as
something of a theme this season, following a
similar situation at Manchester United with Paul
Pogba and Marcus Rashford both missing kicks
during the opening weeks of the campaign.
But while Barkley appeared full of bravado as he
placed the ball on the spot straight away,
Gudjohnsen thinks Blues skipper Cesar Azpilicueta
should have taken control of the situation.
“If you’re the manager in a situation like this,” he
posed, “where you’ve got one, two, three, four
players standing over the ball, and there is a
question on who is going to take the penalty, don’t
you want your captain to step in and say, ‘Listen,
it’s been decided before the game who is the
penalty taker’?
“Show that authority as the captain to make the
decision for everyone who’s on the pitch.”
The 1-0 defeat, courtesy of Rodrigo’s well-taken
finish with 15 minutes to play, means Chelsea are
now under pressure to find results against Lille and
last year’s semi-finalists Ajax.
Lampard takes his side to France in two weeks’
time looking to bounce back from this early setback
following domestic games with Liverpool, Grimsby
and Brighton.
Young-po Reporters 